Credit card debt is spiraling out of control and now accounts for $1 trillion worth of US consumer debt alone, so how can this debt be tackled. Firstly, the use of credit cards must be stemmed; millions of Americans are using their cards to pay for groceries and household expenses and treat their card as their wallet rather than a source of emergency funds. The credit card companies have been prolific in their encouragement of this type of card use and the end result has been that many Americans are paying minimum payments every month and will never clear their credit card balance.

Personally I don't like the idea of paying $100 for a 50c can of pineapple chunks, sounds like an exaggeration doesn't it? But, the truth of the matter is that you will eventually pay well over the odds if you do not clear your credit card balance in full.

If you are one of the millions of Americans facing an uncertain future because of potential employment issues or the economic situation then it is probably wise to look into methods to reduce your outgoings and gain control over your credit card debt. One of the best methods of doing this is to consolidate credit debt by applying for one of the many consolidation products currently available.

Debt consolidation companies offer loans that will normally equate to the sum of your total debt therefore allowing all of your debts to be paid off and leaving you with just one loan repayment a month to worry about. The end benefits of credit card consolidation are control and much lower interest rates.

There are methods however, that the financial institutions do not want the general population knowing and using about, as it would cause them to lose millions of dollars every year in unpaid interest. These methods work brilliantly when used with a consolidation loan and are both legal and ethical and will allow you to pay your debt off in a much shorter period of time, so before applying for a consolidation loan you really need to check these methods out.

You could also look into applying for a piece of the $10 billion bail out fund that the US government has provided to help those in debt. If you visit http://www.grants.gov/ you should be able to acquire the information required to apply for a grant; the secret to getting these grants is perseverance, if you get turned down, don't worry, keep trying until your grant application has been approved.